wfn.org | Baha'i news: UK Foreign Policy Centre challenges Iran on human rights

[Sally Weeks <sweeks@bwc.org>]

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UK Foreign Policy Centre challenges Iran on human rights

LONDON, 30 November (BWNS) - The Foreign Policy Centre, a leading foreign a ffairs think tank in Britain, has published a new report on Iran titled "A  Revolution Without Rights: Women, Kurds and Baha'is Searching for Equality  in Iran."

The report concludes that, although the world is focusing on Iran's nuclear  issue, the rights of women and minorities must not be overlooked.

Published as a pamphlet, the report was presented at a public program at th e Houses of Parliament on 25 November, coinciding with United Nations Inter national Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The document evaluates the Iranian government's compliance with its own con stitution and looks at how the country's treatment of women and minorities  measures up to the international agreements it has signed.

UK Foreign Office Minister Lord Mark Malloch-Brown wrote the preface, descr ibing the report as an "important contribution to the debate, and an import ant part of ensuring that improving Iran's human rights record stays firmly  on the agenda worldwide."

"Iran consistently fails to meet the international commitments that it is s igned up to," he wrote. "It ignores its own laws and terms of its own const itution such as arbitrary arrest and the denial of due process. And it is i ncreasingly - and worryingly - using vague, national security-related charg es such as 'acting against state security' and 'propaganda against the syst em' against individuals who are exercising their right to peaceful protest. "

The launch of the report was held at Portcullis House in the House of Commo ns. Among those who addressed the audience were Member of Parliament Mike G apes, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Baroness Haleh Afshar,  professor of politics and women's studies at the University of York; Irani an human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam; Drewery Dyke of Amnesty Intern ational; and Kaveh Mussavi, head of Public Interest Law, Centre for Socio-L egal Studies, University of Oxford.

Highlighting particularly the ongoing persecution faced by the Baha'is, Ira n's largest non-Muslim religious minority, Baroness Afshar said, "The treat ment of the Baha'is is appalling, unacceptable and - in every way - not onl y against accepted human rights regulations but the ancient traditions of I ran, a culture that has always been characterized by tolerance."

The presentation was chaired by former government minister Stephen Twigg, n ow director of the Foreign Policy Centre.

"This report challenges Iran to fulfill its obligations to its own citizens  under international law and its constitution," said Mr. Twigg. "We must su pport the tireless work of Iranian human rights activists working to bring  change in their own country and make sure their struggle is not overlooked  as the international community focuses on the nuclear issue."

"International pressure really does make a difference in human rights cases ," said Ms. Afshin-Jam, who is president of the Stop Child Executions Campa ign.

To see the complete story with photographs, go to:  http://news.bahai.org/s tory/674